Latest Headlines

by Danny Kemp and Peter Hutchison

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet Donald Trump on Thursday to plead for a US backstop to any Ukraine ceasefire, insisting it would be the only way to stop Russia's Vladimir Putin from invading again.

by Amber WANG

Taiwan said Thursday it detected 45 Chinese aircraft near the self-ruled island, the highest number this year and a tally that comes a day after Taipei condemned China's "live-fire" drills off the south.

A Vietnamese court sentenced a leading independent journalist on Thursday to 30 months in prison over Facebook posts that criticised the government, state media said.

Huy Duc worked for influential state-run newspapers before authoring one of Vietnam's most popular blogs and Facebook accounts, where he criticized the country's communist leaders on issues such as corruption, media control and relations with China.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday accused North Korea of being behind the theft of $1.5 billion worth of digital assets last week, the largest crypto heist in history.

Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit reported last week that it had been robbed of 400,000 in cryptocurrency Ethereum.

Two men were publicly flogged in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province on Thursday after they were found guilty of sexual relations by a court operating under strict Islamic law.

While gay sex is not illegal elsewhere in Indonesia -- the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation -- it is outlawed in Aceh, which imposes a version of sharia, the Islamic legal code.

On a patch of city land beside the sea, urban Emiratis sit beneath the shimmering skyscrapers of wealthy Dubai, revamping a camping tradition rooted in the desert.

Dozens of camper trailers are lined up, with simple facilities set up in the open air against a backdrop featuring the world's tallest building, the needle-like Burj Khalifa -- a symbol of the ostentatious lifestyles and consumerism associated with the city.

Oscar-winning U.S. actor Gene Hackman and his long-time wife Betsy Arakawa have been found dead inside their home in New Mexico, media outlets reported on Thursday.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said the couple was found dead on Wednesday afternoon, adding that there was no immediate indication of foul play, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican and Sky News.

A New York Times report Wednesday night laid out the case that President Donald Trump's first month in office bears some resemblance to the early days of Russian President Vladimir Putin — but one journalist who fled Russia flagged a "hell of a difference" between the two, even as she agreed they "sound familiar."

Peter Baker, the Times' chief White House correspondent, noted in his report that 25 years ago, Yelena Tregubova was ousted from the Kremlin press pool, which covered Putin. Tregubova got the boot following the publication of her controversial book "Tales of a Kremlin Digger" in 2003, which criticized the Putin administration for suppressing press freedom. Tregubova lost her job and was expelled from the Kremlin reporters pool. A bomb exploded outside her apartment and she fled the country.

President Donald Trump’s glowing defense of Wayne Gretzky – who he referred to Wednesday as “the Greatest Canadian” – largely fell flat with political observers in the United States – and in the hockey legend’s native country.

But it did elicit plenty of snarky responses across social media.

House Speaker Mike Johnson was pressed on his chamber's budget, which narrowly advanced along party lines despite swirling questions that it opens the door to cuts to Medicaid.

Johnson joined "The Source" late Wednesday to discuss the budget, and faced multiple questions over whether his party's budget essentially calls for slashing funding for Medicaid, a joint federal and state program that provides health care coverage to low-income Americans.

The American press is "not equipped" to cover a true authoritarian strongman presidency like President Donald Trump is creating, warned Huffington Post senior White House correspondent S.V. Dáte in a dire analysis Wednesday.

"The Washington, D.C., press corps, used to playing small ball for small exclusives, has been suddenly thrust into a presidential administration that appears hell-bent on transforming our constitutional republic into something entirely different," wrote Dáte. "For decades, the coin of the realm in political journalism was access. Who you knew determined what you knew, and especially what 'inside' information the people you knew were willing to give you."

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) has a warning for veterans: you'll have to "contribute" to society if you need food assistance.

As part of their many economic proposals for how to pay for President Donald Trump's tax, border, and energy agenda, Republicans have introduced a bill called the America Works Act, which would toughen work requirements on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, commonly known as food stamps.